This invention relates to pocket knives and, more particularly, to pocket knives especially designed for use with horses.
It has long been known that special knives can be very useful when working with horses. Such knives are used by blacksmiths in preparing the horse's hoofs for shoeing, by veterinary surgeons in operating on the horse's hoofs and by ranch hands who care for horses and their associated leather equipment. One of these knives, i.e. a hoof-cutting knife, must be capable of trimming the edges of the hoof and planing the bottom of the hoof. The blade used for planing the bottom of the hoof may typically have a hook-shaped cross section so that it may be pulled across the hoof to remove layer of callous. Also, one knife may be used to cut leather straps and another to punch holes in leather. A pick-type cleaning knife is useful in removing stones and dirt from the horse's hoof. Naturally it would be very inconvenient to have to carry a number of these knives, especially when travelling about the countryside on horseback. As a result, multi-bladed horseman's knives have been developed.
Typical multi-bladed knives designed for use with horses are described in U.S. Pat. No. 544,540 to Jones and U.S. Pat. No. 541,793 to Schenck. These knives have a number of blades attached to a handle, but the blades are so designed that they cannot fit within a convenient size handle. Hence the knife is bulky and difficult to carry in the user's pocket. In addition neither knife has a hoof-cutting blade with a hook-shaped cross section useful in planing the bottom of the horse's hoof. Some of these problems are solved by the knife described in U.S. Pat. No. 567,493 to McCartea which has a small handle in which its various blades can be stored. The McCartea knife also has a hoof-cutting blade with a hook-shaped cross section. The end of this hook-shaped blade, however, is designed as a mud scraper and not as a planing blade. Because of the hook shape this blade also cannot be stored within the small handle.
It would be extremely useful to the person working with horses, e.g. the horseman, the blacksmith, etc., if a knife could be developed with a blade for planing the horse's hoof which would fit within a small handle so as to form a pocket knife.